Rough seas

I can't quite believe this came out sharp, given the state of the seas. We were on a whalewatching trip from Tofino, in very heavy weather. Jyoti was inside the cabin, throwing up. Technically, the photo's all wrong. It was taken at midday, in flat lighting, and with the sun in the wrong direction. It's a landscape shot, taken with a telephoto lens. And yet, I don't know, I really like it. There's enough haze in the air to give a sense of the distances involved, the waves breaking on the rocks give a sense of motion, the trees are reasonably sharp giving the sense of the forests right at the ocean's edge, stretching up inland to the mountains. I think it really captures the beauty of Vancouver Island (albeit by accident rather than design).

The boat trip itself was a bit of a washout (literally and figuratively) as we only saw an old grey whale's dorsal fin at a distance - he was clearly sick and not moving much. On the other hand, we (well, Malini and I) saw sea otters, loons, bald eagles and a sealion colony, so I suppose it wasn't a complete disaster. And fortunately for us we had a far more successful whalewatching trip a couple of months later.

Details: Nikon D70, 75-240mm lens @ 75mm, f/10, 1/400s, ISO 200. 20 May 2005, Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island. Placemark